Tag Archives: Pharmacy

Yes the is something that we don’t really consider. At least I am not one of those people. You see, I get whatever medications  need from a pharmacy, as such It was never a consideration for me. But the Dutch NOS reported last Saturday ‘Gevolgen verkoop neppillen nog ernstiger dan gedacht: zeker 13 doden’ which amounts to ‘Consequence sales of fake medication more serious than thought, at least 13 dead’ The article gives us “The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) recently reported six deaths and four serious poisonings linked to counterfeit medications. At least six other suspicious deaths have been reported, according to a survey of the Netherlands Poisons Information Centre, the Trimbos Institute, the NFI, and hospitals that can test for hazardous substances. There are also very strong suspicions in a seventh case.” With the addition of  “The main culprit in these deaths and poisonings is nitazene, a synthetic opioid so potent that it poses a significant risk of overdose. Therefore, nitazene is prohibited from use in pharmaceuticals. However, it’s not uncommon for counterfeit pills loaded with the dangerous nitazene to be sold by online retailers as oxycodone available in legitimate pharmacies.” It puzzles me as the Dutch have a great medical setting with additional pharmacy settings. It is slightly better than the Commonwealth, at least it was 20 years ago. As such I don’t understand the need to ‘rely’ on online retailers. 

As such we were given “The parents of a Slaappillen.net victim, who wish to remain anonymous, are making the same plea. Their 29-year-old daughter died on April 8th in Amsterdam after experiencing severe lower abdominal pain, reaching for a pill she thought was oxycodone, which she had left over from a previous order on Slaappillen.net.” and for me the puzzling fact is why they went to this ‘slaappillen.net’ whilst the Dutch pharmacies are top notch. It seems weird how the setting is absent from serious questions. So whilst we consider the quote “The parents also hope that the publicity will prompt the police and the judiciary to prioritize unraveling the networks behind these sites and their “horrible business models,” as the father calls them. “The suffering they cause by doing so apparently doesn’t interest these criminals.”” But the hidden part becomes why the parents resorted to ‘these criminals’ whilst the pharmacies in the Netherlands are of such high quality. As such the question is perhaps not as easy as we might think. We might look at the networks (which is basically an essential step), but the setting why the parents took this step, for the simple setting that most places in the Netherlands (which is perhaps the size of Rhode Island) and has pharmacies usually in a few blocks radius of any city the Netherlands has. As such I am left with questions and the article does not bare this out. It leaves us with unanswered questions and that is not a good thing as these criminals are set on a practical grid foundation, so something, or someone is helping them and that is the setting that is missing. In the Commonwealth you can get Oxycodone Hydrochloride Tablets in a setting of 5 mg tablet (size 20 pack): approximately £1.95, in Australia it is a little less than $7, so what is actually going on? Has the price of Dutch pharmacies gone up by a ridiculous amount? It used to be a lot less than either the UK or Australia. As such I am left with questions. And the NOS did address them in another article. In the story (att https://nos.nl/artikel/2592446-tweede-webshop-voor-de-rechter-na-leveren-neppillen-nfi-ziet-meer-sterfgevallen) are we left with the fact that web shops (online pharmacies) we are given “Besides Funcaps.nl, the Public Prosecution Service is also taking action against another website that sold unlimited amounts of medication without a prescription. The web shop Slaappillen.net is linked to at least one death after the delivery of a counterfeit version of the powerful painkiller oxycodone. These pills contain the life-threatening synthetic substance nitazene.” The other place also got prosecuted, but as far as we are given “In that case, the suspects are linked to the deaths of possibly 49 people, but they too are currently only being prosecuted for violating the Medicines Act.” It apparently is too hard finding evidence of this and the people arrested at present, will most likely be set free which gives us any kind of setting when we come to think of it. 

It seems like a weird setting for prosecution, especially given the facts. As far as I know the Dutch have a great pharmacy setting, so what drives any person to take such a weird risk, especially when we see that there are dozens of deaths. One would think that this would be enough to drive people away from these online retailers. But that might merely be me.

Have a great day, my breakfast is a mere 180 minutes away.